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"It's always magical": From Harry Potter to The Lantern & The Labyrinth - Thomas Taylor Comicon Napoli Interview
Originally known for being the cover artist for Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Taylor kept drawing children books such as Malamander, and in Italy we talked about style, technique, and the threat by AI.
Audio transcription
"Hi friends, I'm at the Comicon 25th in Napoli and I'm here joined by Thomas, which is a magical moment.
Let's talk a little bit about Harry Potter and a little bit about Eerie-on-Sea.
So thank you so much for joining us."
"First of all, I wanted to ask you about the transition, the evolution in your style.
Of course you were very young when you drew the cover art for the first Harry Potter book and then you transitioned into something quite different.
So what can you tell me about that?
Yeah, so it is a strange thing that I began as an illustrator, but now I work more as an author."
"But I have a very visual imagination.
So even when I'm writing, it's like I'm painting pictures with words to try to get those pictures to the reader anyway.
And so, yeah, for me, it's all connected.
It's all one thing, even though it seems to be two different things."
"All right. What can you tell me of your technique specifically?
Are you a traditional, completely analog artist?
Did you transition to more digital tools?
Yes, I have moved over largely to traditional, largely to digital media, but I still, I can still paint."
"So I grew up in the 90s as an art student.
So I know and I have all that background and I'm beginning to want to go back to that a little bit because AI is becoming more and more of a monster.
And so I think being able to paint and draw on paper with a real pencil is actually an advantage."
"And so this search for authenticity is becoming more and more interesting to me.
And I'm turning a little bit away from digital again, I think.
I want to ask you about AI, last question, but now that you brought it up.
So do you see it as, as you said, it's a monster."
"Is this something that perhaps can be used as a helping tool going forward?
Or as we've seen it, you know, stealing styles and copying them is more as a threat to you or artists?
Yeah, I think it feels like a threat at the moment. That's the problem.
It feels like it's taking what we've done already and it's copying and pasting and smudging and making it look like something new."
"But it's not really something new. It's something that's been taken and changed slightly.
And I think more and more people recognize authenticity as important.
And authenticity is something that you get through human endeavor and through searching yourself with a pencil, trying to capture something, trying to draw and paint the real world."
"The AI can never reach because AI cannot pick up a pencil and make a mark on paper.
And so for me, that seems to be a way to go.
But at the same time, it is a useful tool. It can be useful for arranging ideas and for focusing things.
So, you know, it's a balance. We have to find a balance."
"All right. Let's talk about messages and the way you convey them through your drawings.
So, of course, again, comparing Harry Potter and how it conquered children's minds many years ago to then Irion Sea and Malamander and how you sort of...
What is the key to conquering children's minds?
Oh, wow. The key to conquering children's minds with drawings."
"Almost sinister, but I know what you mean.
That's the secret sauce.
I mean, certainly from my own perspective, the Harry Potter picture is my first professional illustration when I came out of art school.
So normally you'd look back on that and you wouldn't want to talk about your first work."
"But I have to be careful about saying that because I know lots of people grew up seeing that image and it has a strong association with a time in their lives, their childhood, with nostalgia.
It's really important to people.
And so I'm very careful about criticizing my own work from the past, even though all illustrators want to say, oh, my early work was rubbish."
"I can't say that.
But I think just being true to the text, reading the book, finding the imagery and trying to be honest about what you're drawing.
But I think I have a strong sense of story and all of that."
"I try to bring it all through in my drawing and my writing.
I'm sure you won't say your original or your early work was rubbish.
And when it got, it got more value with time.
So what can you tell me about that?
About, you know, you got your first job for this cover art."
"It was pretty cheap back then.
Then it got value over time.
So what, how does that make you feel?
How do you reflect on what happened to that original?
I think the thing to remember with Harry Potter and my involvement with Harry Potter is that it's very historic now."
"It belongs to the 1990s.
And so my art is becoming historical artifact rather than art.
So when you look at the gallery and you see here at Comic-Con in Naples, you see all the art that's been created recently, this beautiful art that's been made for real by artists making for books now."
"My pictures feel like they belong to the past.
And especially some of the things I brought, they are historic artifacts.
Historic artifacts gain value.
And so it's completely normal."
"I mean, I'm not phased by it at all.
I mean, some people say, well, why didn't you keep your pictures?
And why didn't you sell them now?
But I would never have kept those pictures for 25 years to sell them."
"I was always going to sell them earlier than that.
And I probably would have lost them, to be honest.
Most likely.
That was a cover, of course."
"I've been discussing this with Simone and Emilio as well, about cover artists, which is something very specific.
And I think very interesting in that sometimes you're just conveying words.
So you don't have to sort of reinterpret art."
"And some of the times what you're doing as a cover artist is to interpret something that's inside that's been drawn.
So that's art.
So what can you tell me and what can you tell young artists that might consider becoming cover artists about this sort of interpretation of someone else's work and trying to add your own touch to it?
I think you've made a good point there, adding your own thoughts to it."
"So if you just draw what's written about in the book, in a way you're doubling up what the author's already written.
They've already said it and now you've drawn it.
It's redundancy."
"It's the same thing.
So you need to try and find something that maybe isn't in the text, that fits, that helps to enhance the text and add that extra thing into the picture to give more to the art."
"The writer has created something and you as the illustrator can give more to that.
And I think a good book cover should tell you how it feels to read the book."
"So you keep that in your mind.
How can I convey through an image how it will feel to read the book is a very important part of the whole process of creating a cover."
"Did you nail it with Harry Potter?
I mean, I don't know.
For now.
Everybody would say yes.
I was 22."
"Almost the age the book was written for.
Almost a child myself, I guess.
I don't know.
I find it harder to do cover art now than I did then."
"Maybe I'm thinking too much now.
In media like video games, we no longer see illustrators.
We see the renders from the games become the cover art."
"So it's been lost in some way.
Okay, final one.
What are you doing as a player?
What do you enjoy from your art in the near future?
Well, I have a new book series coming with Penguin Books."
"It's coming in a couple of years.
Even though it's finished, it's written, I'm working on the sequel.
By the time it comes out, I've only written three books."
"So it will come out in a rush.
And it's another magical, like the Eerie on Sea story.
It's set in a strange little town where magical things happen."
"And there are mysteries and there are legends.
And yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
And it's called The Lantern and the Labyrinth at the moment.
The Lantern and the Labyrinth."
"It's always magical with you, it seems.
Well, I can't help it.
Yeah, you can't help it.
Looking forward to getting out in a couple of years' time."
"So thank you so much for your time, Thomas.
Thank you very much.
Enjoy the show."
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